Title: A Good Grump
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Duo, bit parts -- Trowa and Heero, mention -- Quatre and Wufei
Content: nothing to worry about
Summary: "Trust me!"
Word Count: 977
Archive: ff.n, my site, and my fandom journal (dramamelon)
Feedback: Appreciated!
Disclaimer: Not mine and thus not filling my empty pockets.
Notes: I needed a break from NaNo when this prompt came up on gw500. This happened.
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In all honesty, Duo Maxwell much preferred to take the stairs when at all possible. Sometimes, though, life threw a curveball the size of Jupiter and instead forced him to deal with the conveniences of an elevator. Much to his disgust, this was one of those days.
Resting his weight against the back wall of the metal box, Duo shifted until his braid slipped into the space between said wall and the brass tube handrail. He tried to focus on the modern dressings used to spice up the interior rather than give in to the meanderings of his brain. It was not as if Trowa or Heero, both stationed like good little soldiers side by side in front of the closing doors, would be any good in distracting him – they hadn't been on the way up, after all.
Neither of his companions were the type to offer any sort of support should they discover the way his mind created a multitude of disastrous, bloody ends for them and the elevator. Given only a couple minutes, Duo could think up at least twenty ways for the cables to snap and send them careening down the open shaft. His luck, of course, had them at the top of a building tall enough to require at least four to reach the ground floor. Plenty of time to come up with a real doozy. The Towering Inferno would look like a kiddy story in comparison when he was done.
Duo pondered asking Heero if he felt like jumping again, instead. The end result of that, at least, might put Heero into the same position as Duo himself, gain him a little sympathy from the genetic freak. With the doors already closed, though, it was too late. He sighed and looked down at the heavy cast he sported on the lower half of his right leg. In the corner, he had stashed his crutches, disgusted with the helplessness they represented.
Never again would he trust Quatre when he said, "Trust me!"
At least not when it came to the structural integrity of old, fallen trees across fortunately shallow ravines while camping. The "please, please, please forgive me" puppy dog apology Quatre had just given him in the top floor office of WEI headquarters was the reason he was even in the building. When Duo, in his great fit of "can't even work in the flippin' garage" grumpiness had not answered any of Quatre's calls over the last week, the blond had called in reinforcements.
The absence of Wufei in Duo's little escort lay only in the fact that the man currently lay bedridden with a severe cold gained pulling Duo, single-handedly, from the icy river that coursed the floor of the previously mentioned ravine. Quatre's apology there would be waiting until Wufei was coherent enough to recognize it for what it was, apparently. Really, at this point, Duo couldn't care less about Wufei's apology. He was thinking more that Quatre owed another apology for making him have to ride the elevator. Could Quatre not have scheduled this at a time when he was free to show up unannounced outside the door of Duo's apartment?
No, instead, he recruited their two still unhindered friends to bring him in like some sort of criminal. (And it was a known fact that Duo had not so much as even thought about lifting a candy bar let alone a significant item in... well, last week had been a tough one, so it didn't count. That one incident aside, it had been months!) Having the Silent but Deadly Twins – yeah, they were like the worst kind of farts – force him to visit Quatre in the middle of a major grump? Only luck had kept the injuries down to Trowa's dizzy wobble while walking him to the car. Heero had been quick enough to jump out of the path of the crutch aimed at his crotch, much to the deflating of Duo's ego.
But the elevator. Not once, but twice. The mental anguish it was causing him! Why all it would take for the cables to give at that exact moment-
Ding!
Lifting his gaze from the graphittied surface of his cast, Duo looked to find the elevator doors sliding open again. Heero's hand moved to hold them that way while Trowa reached for Duo's discarded crutches. Duo blinked and accepted them, shocked to realize he managed to distract himself quite entirely from imagining a gruesome elevator death for all of them by instead reliving the events that had gotten him into this position in the first place. He had also been too busy cursing Quatre and laying scathing insults on his escorts on the way up to ponder death in a metal box, Duo admitted to himself with great reluctance after a little thought.
"Okay, fine," he muttered. "Maybe Quat doesn't owe me another one. Yet. I'm sure I'll come up with something, though."
In the awkward shuffle of the crutch-bound, Duo worked his way out of the elevator into the spacious lobby. He winced away from the terrible reflection of the sun off the highly polished marble flooring, not bothering to check if Trowa and Heero followed. More important was making it through that great obstacle known as revolving doors a second time.
Meanwhile, back at the elevator, Heero cast a glance at Trowa, a light frown on his mouth. "Doesn't owe him another what?"
A few long moments of silence later, time well-spent watching Duo struggle rather comically with the doors, Trowa finally answered. "I think it's probably best we don't ask. I don't think I could handle another crutch to the head today."
Heero gave a grunt and a curt nod. A grumpy Duo was a Duo best avoided or placated, as the situation demanded. Currently, avoidance seemed the wise choice.
END